Loyalty
by Shadow Padawan
Summary: They had Lily Evans-Potter. She got away. Severus takes the blame, even though that's not how it went down.


Severus knew that he and Lily fought on different sides of the war. He was smart enough to understand the implicit consequences of that, meaning that he knew very well that there might come a day when he would have to duel Lily in battle or perhaps be brought in to help interrogate her. However, knowing it and it actually happening were two different things entirely. The theoretical scenario was bad enough to make Severus shudder. But coming face-to-face with the reality…

Severus stood with his cloak wrapped tightly around his narrow frame; the howling wind had whipped off his hood long ago. He watched with baffled, agony-filled eyes as Lily struggled helplessly against the firm, almost rough hands holding her down. Her wand lay several feet away and she looked toward it longingly, wishing something could bring it to her hand. Mulciber was in command of their detachment group. Wilkes was helping Mulciber hold Lily down until they managed to put a binding curse on her. Evan stood beside Severus glancing between their captive and his friend. Severus could feel the blood slowly draining out of his face as he imagined what they would do to her.

Lily's green eyes found his and widened. She tried to scream but they had silenced her with magic earlier. Her agitated gaze was unreadable and Severus could not decide whether she was trying to plead with him or simply staring him down.

"How had this dove separated from her flock?" Muciber asked, pacing around Lily who now lay on the ground, bound by invisible ropes. "Scouting. They were scouting by the looks of it. You're quite a ways off, Dove. Do you really think we'd put our base somewhere this obvious?"

"Shut up, Ashley, we don't want to give her any information." Angelus was fidgety, glancing around the area to see if they may have been found by some of Lily's friends.

"Does it matter?" Mulciber gave Wilkes an exasperated look. "She will either be dead soon or…actually, she'll be dead either way. I guess the difference is more in how long does she have to suffer before she dies."

Severus shuddered again, feeling a cold wave sweep over him. He could not watch this, could not image having to watch Lily be interrogated. "She won't tell you anything," he said in a voice that he hoped would not sound too choked up. If he was lucky, they would kill her here, with an Avada Kedavra. "I know her, she won't talk." He felt Evan shift closer to him but did not take his eyes off of Lily. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't watch her die, but betraying the Cause outright? Even if he were to try and free Lily, his friends would never let him and they would be ready. Three against one – not impossible but he'd have to kill at least two of them most likely and that was unacceptable.

"What do we do with her, gentlemen?"

"You heard Severus. She won't tell us anything." Evan was obviously trying to help and Severus wasn't sure if he should be grateful to his best friend or not.

"Well we can't let her go," Wilkes mused. "I suppose we should just ki—"

An explosion in the distance but close enough to make them all stumble made the four boys draw their wands. Shapes moved quickly through the trees, Apparating in short jumps as they got closer.

"Damn it, I said we should have had an anti-Apparition field!" Evan ranted even as Mulciber began shouting orders for them to make a defensive circle. They should have just gone, but the first curses were already flying at them and no one, except for Severus, particularly wanted to leave their captive behind.

Severus rolled on the ground, dodging a curse, and sprung up to fire a string of his own. They were four against five, fairly even odds. These were not Aurors, so most likely they were Order members who had come back for Lily.

Mulciber and Wilkes quickly fell into fighting back to back once it was clear that a circle would be ineffective. Severus, who was several trees away from them, looked around frantically for his own partner, but Evan wasn't there.

Severus ducked two more spells and slid behind a bush, kicking up dry leaves in the process. He wondered if perhaps he could somehow get to Lily and help her while the others were busy fending off attacks. Severus sprang up and fired off a few curses before ducking back down behind the cover of foliage, glancing around to figure out his next move. From his temporary hide-out he saw Evan pointing his wand at Lily from behind a tree and muttering something. Severus held his breath, waiting for the green light, but it never came. Instead, Lily rolled onto her knees and began to scramble around in the leaves and grass, searching for her wand, her restraints obviously gone.

Evan ran toward Severus and grabbed his arm. "We have to go, we have to go!" he shouted at Wilkes and Mulciber.

"The girl!"

"She's gone, there's no time!" Evan panted. "Let's go, let's go!"

Severus looked over his shoulder to see that Lily had indeed vanished into the surrounding bushes. He looked back and tried to catch Evan's eyes but it was nearly impossible in the dark.

They Apparated away, landing outside the security perimeter of their base and walked the rest of the way there. Severus, head still reeling, held Evan back and asked, quietly, eyes wide and a little awed. "I saw what you did. …Why?"

"I know how you feel about her, Severus. We've been friends for too long; I know when you haven't let something go." Evan isn't looking away but not quite meeting his eyes until Severus forced him to.

"That's not a reason, though. She would have been a valuable prisoner."

Evan looked at him for a while, then reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "You're my best friend, Sev," he said finally instead of an answer.

* * *

"You let her get away? You had the Mudblood Evans and you let her get away?"

"Potter, technically, my Lord," Muciber said and instantly cringed at his own insolence.

The Dark Lord hissed between his teeth but was obviously too preoccupied with the matter at hand to retaliate properly. "Do you think it matters to me? You had a valuable prisoner and you let her slip away. Should I blame you, Mr. Mulciber? After all, you were in charge of this detachment if I am correct?"

Mulciber cringed slightly. The four of them were alone with the Lord in a small audience chamber. Usually, if this had been a full debriefing, Antonin would be there to protect them to what extent he could. Dolohov issued punishments of his own but they were nowhere near as brutal as those of the Lord. "As I said, we were ambushed, my Lord."

"Did you not make an attempt to secure the girl?"

"We did, my Lord. I do not know how she got away."

The Lord considered this for a while, then began to pace back and fourth, looking each of them in the face. "I have a feeling that someone here must have seen her get away. Who gave the order to leave?"

"Evan told us she was gone. We did not want to risk anyone for an escaped prisoner and a few stragglers."

Lord Voldemort glided slowly over to Evan and stood in front of him. Severus saw from the corner of his eye how Evan struggled to not shrink back from their Lord's gaze. "Did you see how she got away, Mr. Rosier?" the Lord asked in a dangerously silky voice. "Answer truthfully for I will know if you lie to me. If you are truthful, perhaps I shall be merciful."

Evan swallowed hard and prepared himself for an answer. Severus could tell his friend was stealing himself for a long and painful Cruciatus. Evan would not lie, he knew it would be futile. Evan had never been a very good liar and he had a low resistance to mental probing – Severus would know. It felt so wrong to allow Evan to take any responsibility for this, for Evan would have been willing to deliver Lily dutifully to the Lord and to Interrogation. Not out of any inherent cruelty but because this was a war and that was their job. And yet, Evan had not only allowed her to get away, he helped Lily escape and…supposedly all for Severus' sake.

_You're my best friend, Sev._

Before he knew what he was doing, Severus stepped forward and said in as clear a voice as he could, "It was I, my Lord. I saw Lily Potter getting away and did not interfere." He felt the Lord's dark, bottomless eyes turn on him and suppressed the shivers running down his back. "Evan only saw that she was gone a few seconds later when she was already gone," Severus pressed on, even as the Lord's gaze weighed heavily on him. This would be a very long evening. But it was worth it, because Evan had been willing to endure the same for him.


End file.
